As we took a walk around the neighborhood today, Prairie and I noticed a couple of “Happy Birthday” balloons stuck in a tree. Since that’s not a good thing, after we finished our walk, we grabbed the extension pole we use to replace ceiling lightbulbs and went back to see if we could get the balloons down.
The pole was just a few inches short of what it needed to be, but with a little somewhat goofy jumping around and a lot of tries, I was eventually able to snag the balloons and bring them down without letting them escape.
We planned on tying them outside our place and leaving a note in the neighborhood Facebook group so that if they belonged to anyone local, they could have them back, and if they were still around in a day or so, we’d trash them.
But as we were walking home, I noticed that the balloons were tied to a baggie with a folded up piece of paper inside. Wondering if it was a note, we opened it up.
“Happy birthday baby,” it began. “I still can’t believe you are gone. You would have been 72 years old.” And it continued on, a very sweet love letter from a woman to her husband on his birthday.
Once we realized what it was, we decided we needed to do something. We didn’t want to just re-release the balloons, since that’s not very environmentally friendly. So instead, we made a donation to the World Wildlife Fund (based on something in the letter indicating that environmental causes were important to this couple) and burned the letter in our fireplace, so her words could continue their journey onward.
It was a really unexpected and sweet little thing to have happen to us today. I hope the author and her husband had a good life, and that she continues to enjoy her life until she sees him again.